Apparatus for mounting an electrical connector on a printed wiring board

ABSTRACT

Disclosed is a method and apparatus for mounting an electrical connector on a printed wiring board. The printed wiring board is initially positioned on locating projections on a tooling plate. Eyelets are positioned in hold down apertures in the connector. The hold down apertures initially engage the locating projections to align the connector pins with pin receiving apertures on the printed wiring board. Engagement continues until the pins are positioned in the apertures and the lower end of the eyelet is deformed to engage the innerside of the down aperture and the lower side of the printed wiring board.

This application is a division of application Ser. No. 08/443,789 filedMay 17, 1995 (pending, etc.).

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to electrical connectors and moreparticularly to methods and apparatus for attaching electricalconnectors to a substrate.

2. Brief Description of the Prior Developments

In the assembly of electronic devices it is frequently necessary tomount connectors having a plurality of signal pins or pin like elementson a printed wiring board or on other substrates. There will ordinarilybe a plurality of pin receiving apertures on the surface of the printedwiring board and conventionally each of the pins on the connector willbe aligned with one of the pin receiving apertures and the connectorwill then be engaged with the wiring board. The connector will alsooften be equipped with a pair of mounting brackets at its opposed ends.Each of these brackets will have a hold down aperture which is alignedwith a hold down aperture on the printed wiring board. An eyelet, rivetor any other number of well known commercial fasteners may be insertedthrough these hold down apertures to fix the connector to the wiringboard but only after the signal pins have first been aligned with theminserted into their respective pin receiving apertures.

The method as described above for fixing a connector to a printed wiringboard has several disadvantages. First, the alignment of the signal pinswith the pin receiving apertures is a rather exacting procedure whichmust be accomplished within close tolerances. Further, the conventionalmethod as described above involves two distinct procedures in that theeyelet is not attached to the connector and the wiring board until thesignal pins have first been aligned with them and inserted into the pinreceiving apertures. The carrying out of these two distinct proceduresmay result in a significant addition to the time and expense requiredfor the overall assembly operation. A need, therefore, exists for amethod and apparatus for mounting a connector on a printed wiring boardor other substrate which can be performed quickly and efficiently inessentially a single integral procedure.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In the method and apparatus of the present invention the hold downapertures of the connectors are first superimposed and aligned withlocating projections which extend perpendicularly upwardly from atooling plate. The connector is then lowered toward the tooling plateuntil the hold down apertures are initially engaged with the toolingprojection. Downward motion of the connectors continues until the pinsfirst engage then are seated in the pin receiving apertures in theprinted wiring board and the hold down apertures are fully engaged withthe locating projection. An axial force is then applied downwardly tothe eyelet against a deformation means in the tooling plate to bend theeyelet to engage the printed wiring board within its thickness and onits lower side. The eyelet also engages the connector on its upper sideso as to fix the connector to the printed wiring board. By the term"eyelet" what is meant is any type of tubular rivet or other fastenerwhich can concentrically engage a projection that fits through anaperture.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The method and apparatus of the present invention is further describedwith reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a top plan view in fragment of a connector showing one holddown bracket;

FIG. 2 is a vertical cross sectional view through line II--II in FIG. 1;

FIGS. 3a-3f are schematic illustrations of the connector, the printedwiring board and the mounting apparatus showing successive steps in themethod of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of the connector and printed wiringboard showing the final connected assembly;

FIG. 5 is a vertical cross sectional view of the locating projectionelement of the apparatus used in the method of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic end view of an alternate embodiment of theapparatus of the present invention; and

FIG. 7 is a schematic end view of another alternate embodiment of theapparatus of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a connector is shown generally at numeral10. This connector includes a receptacle 12, a guide pin 14, a mountingbracket 16, a press block 18 and an end wall 20 positioned between thebracket and the press block. It will be understood that there is shownonly one end of the connector and at the other end there will be asimilarly positioned and essentially identical mounting bracket andguide pin. It will also be seen that the mounting bracket includes ahold down aperture 22 in which there is positioned an annular rivetwhich is also commonly referred to as an eyelet 24. Signal pins as at 26and 28 extend downwardly from the press block.

Referring to FIGS. 3a-3f, a preferred embodiment of the method of thepresent invention is illustrated in greater detail. Referringparticularly to FIG. 3a, it will be seen that in the first step of thismethod a tooling plate 30 is provided which has an upwardly extendingperpendicular locating projection 32 along with deformation recesses asat 34 and 36. The functions of this projection and deformation recesseswill be explained hereafter. A printed wiring board 38 having a pair ofapertures as at 40 is positioned so that the apertures are engaged withthe locating projections of the tooling plate and the printed wiringboard abuts the tooling plate in side to side relation.

Referring particularly to FIG. 3b, the connector is then superimposedover the printed wiring board and the tooling plate so that it's holddown apertures and the concentric eyelet are in vertical alignment withthe locating projections at the tooling plate. In the next step of themethod the eyelet is initially engaged with the locating projection asis shown in FIG. 3c. It will be noted from FIG. 3c that upon the initialengagement of the hold down aperture and the eyelet with the locatingprojection that the pins of the connectors are not yet engaged with arespective pin receiving aperture in the printed wiring board. Referringparticularly to FIG. 3d, it will be seen that additional tooling is thenprovided by way of an eyelet support block 42 which is superimposedabove the mounting bracket and in particular the hold down aperture andthe eyelet. There is also a U-shaped channel 44 which is positionedabove the eyelet support block and the connector. Above the U-shapedchannel there is also a ram 46 which pushes downwardly on the connector.The action of this ram will result in the pins as at 26 and 28 engagingpin receiving apertures as at 48 and 50 in the printed wiring board. Itwill also be noted that there are pin receiving recesses as at 52 and 54positioned immediately beneath each of the pin receiving apertures inthe printed wiring board. At this stage of the method shown in FIG. 3d,however, the pins have not yet entered these pin receiving apertures.Referring particularly to FIG. 3e it will be seen that downward pressureby the ram continues in this method until the pins pass through the pinreceiving apertures in the printed wiring board and enter the pinreceiving recesses in the tooling plate. It will also be seen from FIG.3e that the eyelet is pushed downwardly against deformation means at thebase of the locating projection. This deformation means will preferablybe an axially expanded lower section of the locating projection whichwill be disclosed hereafter in greater detail. Such downward axialpressure on the eyelet continues until the lower end of the eyelet willbe crimped as at 55 as is shown in FIG. 3f. Upon the completion of thismethod, the tooling plate is removed to leave an assembly such as isshown in FIG. 4 wherein the eyelet engages the connector at its top andthe printed wiring board at its bottom by means of crimp 55 to affixthese elements together.

Referring to FIG. 5, the engagement of the locating projection, eyeletsupport block, the eyelet and the printed wiring board is shown infurther detail. It will be seen that the eyelet support block has avertical bore 56 with a rivet receiving recess 58 on its lower side. Thelocating projection has an upper nipple 60 and a lower axially expandeddeformation section 62. Outwardly from this deformation section there isan annular collar 64. Beneath the locating projection in the toolingplate there is also an axial bore 66 in which there is a plug 68 whichis at the upper end of a spring 70 which is attached at its lower end toa projection spring base 72. The eyelet 24 is positioned over the nippleof the locating projection and is retained at its lower end between thatnipple and the annular collar and at its upper end in the recess of theeyelet support block. As downward axial pressure is applied to theeyelet its lower section is deformed outwardly by the lower flareddeformation section of the locating projection. That lower portion isreceived in the deformation recesses so that a crimp is formed as atshown at numeral 55 in FIG. 4. While such downward axial pressure isapplied to the eyelet, spring 70 is compressed in the axial bore 66.After the lower end of the rivet has been crimped and the downward axialpressure is removed the spring expands to at least partially remove theprinted wiring board from the locating projection.

Referring to FIG. 6, a second preferred embodiment of the method andapparatus of the present invention is illustrated. In this embodiment aconnector shown generally at numeral 110 and being essentially identicalto those shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 has been positioned with a eyelet 124 onan upper tooling plate 130 with a perpendicular locating projection asat 132 with deformation recesses 134 and 136. In a manner similar tothat described in the first embodiment, a printed wiring board 138 isalso engaged with the locating projections between the connector and theupper tooling plate in a manner similar to that described in connectionwith the first embodiment. The upper tooling plate 130 is itselfsuperimposed over a base plate 176 which has a medial raised section 178from which the projection extends. Interposed between the upper toolingplate and the base plate are vertical springs 180 and 182. In thisapparatus the connector is engaged with the printed wiring board in amanner similar to that described above, as is the locating projection isinserted into the aperture 122. The springs 180 and 182 are in agenerally expanded position until the eyelet is seated in thedeformation recesses and deformed by a lower axially expanded section ofthe projection. As downward axial pressure is then applied to deform thelower end of the eyelet the springs yield to this pressure as the eyeletis crimped. After the eyelet is crimped and the downward axial pressureis removed from it the springs force the upper tooling plate upward toat least partially remove the rivet from the upward locating projection.

Referring to FIG. 7, a third preferred embodiment of the method andapparatus of the present invention is illustrated. In this embodiment aconnector which is shown generally at numeral 210 is essentially similarto the one described in conjunction with FIGS. 1 and 2. This connectoris mounted with eyelet 224 over tooling plate 230 which has a locatingprojection 232 which is positioned inside eyelet 224. In a mannersimilar to the embodiments described above, the apparatus of theembodiment includes an eyelet support block 242, a U-shaped channel 244and a ram 246. In this embodiment the connector is fixed to the printedwiring board in a manner as was described in the first two embodiments.After the eyelet has been moved downwardly to the deformation recesses234 and 236, a solenoid 280 is automatically activated to move theprojection 236 upwardly. In this embodiment, an axially expanded section282 of the locating projection deforms the eyelet during the upwardmotion of the projection. The upward motion of the projection alsocauses the wiring board to at least partially disengage from the eyelet224.

It will be appreciated that there has been described a method andapparatus for mounting a connector to a printed wiring board or othersubstrate which enables the eyelets or tubular rivets and the signalpins to be mounted in their respective apertures in one quick andefficient operation and which takes advantage of the need to mount thoseeyelets to easily align the signal pins with their pin receivingapertures.

While the present invention has been described in connection with thepreferred embodiments of the various figures, it is to be understoodthat other similar embodiments may be used or modifications andadditions may be made to the described embodiment for performing thesame function of the present invention without deviating therefrom.Therefore, the present invention should not be limited to any singleembodiment, but rather construed in breadth and scope in accordance withthe recitation of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. An assembly for mounting an electrical connectorcomprising:(a) a tooling plate having at least one locating projectionextending generally perpendicularly therefrom; (b) a substrate having aplurality of pin receiving apertures and a hold down aperture and beingsuperimposed over the tooling plate such that the hold down aperture isengaged by the locating projection; and (c) an electrical connectorhaving a plurality of pins and at least one hold down aperture with atubular fastening means concentrically positioned in said hold downaperture and being superimposed over the locating projection.
 2. Theassembly of claim 1 wherein means are provided for applying an axialforce on the tubular fastening means in the direction of the substrate.3. The assembly of claim 2 wherein means are provided for applying anaxial force on the locating projection in the direction of theconnector.
 4. The assembly of claim 3 wherein the locating projectionhas an upper engagement nipple and an axial bore having an axial springand said axial spring is the means for applying an axial force on thelocating projection in the direction of the connector.
 5. The assemblyof claim 3 wherein the tooling plate is superimposed over a base plateand at least one spring is interposed between said tooling plate andsaid base and said spring is the means for applying an axial force onthe locating projection in the direction of the connector.
 6. Theassembly of claim 3 wherein means are provided for automaticallyactivating the means for applying an axial force on the locatingprojection in the direction of the connector after the means forapplying an axial force on the tubular fastening means is deactivated.